PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I was very sad to learn recently that John Artis had passed away. I admired John greatly. Indeed, I had him in mind several years ago when I decided to create the 'Selfless Warriors Blog' - as companion Blog to 'The Charles Smith Blog.' I defined 'Selfless Warriors' as 'exceptional individuals who have been ripped out of their ordinary lives by their inability to stand by in the face of a glaring miscarriage of justice.' John fit that definition to a 'T.' Check out 'The Selfless Warriors Blog' at:
Dear reader: If you can think of anyone who, like John Artis, and the many others recognized on the Blog, deserves to be recognized as a 'Selfless Warrior,' please drop me a note at:
hlevy15@gmail.com
I am currently working on a new series of posts for "The Selfless Warriors Blog."
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
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FROM TODAY'S NEW YORK TIMES:
"John Artis: Convicted with Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, dies at 75; He was 'the forgotten man' in the triple murder case that was eventually overturned and that exposed flaws in thew criminal justice system."
Sam Roberts: New York Times. 11 November, 2021.
john-artis-dead.html
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"My mother didn't raise me to lie - and I'm not going to lie for you."
John Artis. (To the detectives offering him his freedom if he incriminated Rubin Carter);
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THE CRIME:
As with the two previous posts, the crimes were horrific. For former boxer Iwao Hakamada in Japan it was the murder of a family; ('Selfless Warrior' Kumamoto Norimichi). For David Bain in New Zealand it was the murder of five members of his own family. (His 'Selfless Warrior’ was Joe Karam). For middleweight contender Rubin (The Hurricane) Carter and his 'Selfless Warrior', John Artis, it was the shooting up the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey on June 17, 1966, which left three people dead. As James S. Hirsch notes in his book ‘Hurricane: The miraculous journey of Rubin Carter', published by Houghton Mifflin, this was a very big deal: "There had been only six murders in Paterson since the beginning of the year. But the overlay of race, of black invaders and white flight and a hapless neighbourhood bar with a neon Schlitz sign and threadbare pool table, elevated the tragedy further.” Paterson Mayor Frank Graves made crystal clear his desire to bring the perpetrator to justice as quickly as possible, referring to the Lafayette bar murders as ’the most heinous crimes” and “the most dastardly crimes in the city’s history. As James Hirsch put it: “The pressure to solve the worse crime in Paterson’s long history would soon lead to the most feared man in the town.” That man was Rubin Carter, the 29-year-old prizefighter, and one of the great characters of boxing’s golden era - and the 19-year-old man arrested with him, and eventually sentenced to prison for murder along with him was John Artis - a most unlikely choice of ’Selfless Warrior'. One thing terribly wrong with this picture: Both men had been framed. They were utterly innocent".
THE 'SELFLESS WARRIOR': THE NIGHTMARE BEGINS.
I consider John Artis a 'Selfless Warrior' because he chose to stand by Rubin Hurricane Carter - instead of giving in to intense police pressure to falsely incriminate Carter - and perhaps send him to his death - in return for a guarantee that he would be home in time for Christmas. What brought the celebrated boxer and the aspiring high school track star together that fatal evening? That story is beautifully told by Globe and Mail sports writer Stephen Brunt in an interview headed 'Bound together by fate. Reunited by fame.’ "They had nothing in common but being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” the article began, "Rubin Carter and John Artis came together by accident, two vague acquaintances who happened to be out on the town in Paterson, N.J., one June night in 1966,” the article continued. " Mr. Carter was a professional boxer at the tail end of his career, in and out of trouble with the law for most of his life, a flamboyant local celebrity. Mr. Artis was 19 years old. He was a good student, a high-school track and football star who had a full athletic scholarship waiting for him. (He'd delayed going to college because his mother had died suddenly.) He had no criminal record. It was late. The nightclub was emptying out. Mr. Artis, who had spent the evening dancing, needed a ride home. He'd met Mr. Carter just once before, but like everyone in Paterson's tightly-knit black community, he knew who the boxer was. Sure, Mr. Carter, said, when asked for a lift. But you're going to drive. "That was the beginning," Mr. Artis says, "of a real nightmare.”
THE 'SELFLESS WARRIOR': AN OFFER YOU CAN'T REFUSE?
The story of Rubin Carter and John Artis’s momentous battle for freedom and exoneration has been told in several memorable books such as James Hirsch's ‘Hurricane,’ Sam Chaiton and Terry Swinton's “Lazurus and The Hurricane,” (Published by Penguin Books) and Rubin Carter himself, in 'The sixteenth Round: From number 1 contender to number 45472.' (Lawrence Hill Books). The story has also been the subject of a feature film, television documentaries, podcasts - and in the Bob Dylan's iconic song 'Hurricane’ with lyrics by Dylan and Jacques Levy. My focus however is on the extraordinary moral strength and courage displayed by John Artis as illustrated by his refusal to accept an offer of freedom in exchange for pinning the blame on Rubin, a man whom he had barely met before. James Hirsch describes John Artis’s moment of truth in ‘Hurricane,’ in the context of a visit paid to Artis by Eldridge Hawkins, a Black state assembly man asked by the state governor “to investigate the matter.” “According to Artis, Hawkins offered him more than truth serum for advice. At the time, Artis was considered a model prisoner at minimum-security Leesburg State Prison and was participating in an inmate college program at Glassboro State College. As he was preparing for school one morning, Artis was told that he had a one-day furlough to visit his father in Paterson. He had not been home in nine years. When he arrived, he was met by his father and Hawkins." Putting the Hirsch quote aside for a moment, Hawkins introduced himself to Artis and told him "we know you didn't kill anyone but we think you and Rubin were there." Hawkins then asked Artis if he would take a lie detector test. Artis understandably refused a request to take a lie detector test so many years after his arrest. Hawkins then asked Artis to provide a "true" statement that said Rubin was the one who committed the crime, promising "If you sign a statement saying that, I can guarantee you’ll be home by Christmas." Back to Hirsch. "Artis refused to sign the statement because it would have implicated Carter, He told Hawkins that even a Christmas homecoming would not prompt him to admit to a crime that neither he nor Carter committed." Without a moments hesitation Artis added,"my mother didn't raise me to lie - and I'm not going to lie for you." Artis gave Hawkins the following challenge: " "If you know I didn’t kill anybody, why don’t you go back and tell the governor that? Chaiton and Swinton, note in in ‘Lazarus’ that the police had never been particularly interested in Artis. “It was "Hurricane” Carter they were after, the loudmouth, the troublemaker, the shit-disturber. At any point, John could have saved himself by simply “rolling over” on Rubin, fingering him as the gunman. Indeed, he was under considerable pressure by the police to do so, especially in early December 1975, at the height of the “Free Carter and Artis” campaign, after Bello’s and Bradley’s recantations and the Bob Dylan song, when public rage was most intense and the freeing of Carter and Artis appeared unavoidable. Chaiton and Swinton add the telling detail that John Artis was sitting in the living room with his mother - after being inextricably removed from the prison - when he was promised he would be back home in time for Christmas if he just admitted he was with Carter at the Lafayette Bar at the time of the shooting and that Carter had done it. But John wouldn’t and couldn’t. “No matter what deals were offered - and they were offered repeatedly - he would not veer from the truth. The truth however was no guarantee of justice. Rubin couldn’t say enough about John’s strength and extraordinary courage for not caving in to what should have been irresistible pressure.” Indeed, James Hirsch recalls a law school event attended by both Artis and Carter in 1999, in which John told the students “if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone,” and Rubin publicly thanked John ARTIS for the first time and “praised his co-defendant’s courage for never accepting an offer of freedom in exchange for pinning the blame on him.”
THE COST:
Sam Chaiton and Terry Swinton note that even though Rubin had kept his eye on Artis, making sure that he was safe in a system that devoured young men like him, Rubin wondered if this was really possible. "But how, asked Rubin, "do you protect someone from the pernicious effects of incarceration?And how is it possible, quoting Dylan, to give him back, the time he's done? You seem while in prison, he contracted an incurable circulatory disease. And today, John is minus fingers and toes, and threatened with amputations! Just because he happened to be in my car that night."
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COMMENTARY:
No one person gets the credit for helping free and exonerate Rubin Carter and John Artis. There was Lesra Martin, the young Brooklyn-raised boy who was inspired by the 'Sixteenth Round' to meet with Rubin Carter at the prison where he was incarcerated in Trenton, New Jersey, and introduced him to a group living in Toronto, commonly referred to as 'The Canadians,' including Sam Chaiton and Terry Swinton, who fought for Rubin's freedom, and ultimately paved his way to come to Toronto and live with them. There was also a movement composed of people around the world - including many in the sporting world and the arts - who put pressure on the New Jersey authorities and kept the case in the public eye. There were committed lawyers. There was an awesome judge named H. Lee Sarokin who freed Rubin Carter. Carter is quoted as having praised Sarokin, saying: "For he alone had the courage to face squarely the issue that the state courts for nineteen years had side-stepped, and that is that the poison of racism had permeated the entire case. To not throw out these convictions, so wrote Judge Sarokin, would be to commit a crime as heinous as those for which we were unjustly convicted." But in this humble scribe's opinion, John Artis stands out. He turned down an offer which would have given him a life in freedom - instead of a living death in prison, locked away from family, friends and future. There's more than that. When Rubin was suffering from prostate cancer, John moved from the US to Toronto to take care of Rubin and comfort him. As his good friend (my good friend too) Win Wahrer, a co-founder of Aidwyc (The Association in Defence of The Wrongly Convicted, now called 'Innocence Canada), put it:
"John remained a selfless and loyal friend to Rubin. Upon learning that Rubin had prostrate cancer, John left his job and home in Virginia to move to Toronto to live with Rubin, administer to his daily needs and help him live a dignified life as he battled the disease."
"John was Rubin's cheerleader during the good times and his devoted friend, mentor and one of his strongest supporters in the challenging times," Win continued. "He never considered it a sacrifice to put his life on hold as he dedicated himself to looking until Rubin died on Easter Day, 2014.
"Rubin considered him his hero and never ceased being grateful for John's friendship and good humour which brought him great comfort."
For all these very compelling reasons, in my books, John Artis is truly a 'Selfless Warrior'.
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Selfless Warrior Blog.
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INSIGHTFUL READING MATERIALS:
'Bound together by fate; Reunited by fame.'
Reporter Steven Brunt: Globe and Mail. April 6, 2000.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/bound-together-by-fate-and-reunited-by-fame/article1038511/
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'When a crime becomes inspiration: John Artis and The Hurricane Carter saga.'
Reporter Peter Edwards. Toronto Star. October 17, 2014.
https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/2014/10/17/when_a_crime_becomes_inspiration_john_artis_and_the_hurricane_carter_saga.html
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'Boxer's co-defendant quietly rebuilds his life.'
Reporter Carol Morello: The Washington Post: Jan. 29, 2000.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/01/29/boxers-co-defendant-quietly-rebuilds-his-life/abf61b15-982a-4ce7-940a-1f2aab68a264/
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CHRONOLOGY: (Condensed from Lazarus and the Hurricane chronology):
June 17, 1966: Two men and a woman fatally shot at Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson New Jersey. Rubin Carter (RC) and John Artis (JA) questioned by police, not identified by surviving victims, pass lie detector tests and are released as police say they were never suspects.
June 29, 1966: RC and JA testify voluntarily before grand jury and are exonerated.
October 14, 1966. RC and JA are arrested and indicted for the triple murder.
May 27, 1967: All-white jury convicts RC and JA. Prosecutor seeks death penalty. Jury recommends mercy.
March 17, 1976: New Jersey (NJ) Supreme Court unanimously overturns the convictions - ruling prosecution withheld evidence favourable to the defence, orders new trial RC and JA released on bail.
Dec. 22, 1976: Second trial: Prosecution allowed to argue for the first time that murders motivated by racial revenge. RC and JA reconnected. Same life sentences reimposed. Returned to prison.
Dec. 22, 1981: JA released on parole after serving 15 years.
Nov. 7, 1985: Sarokin decision: Judge advises state in interest of justice and compassion not to seek a third trial.
Jan. 11, 1988: US Supreme Court affirms Sarokin's rulings.
Feb. 19, 1988: Prosecutors announce not seeking new trial; indictments dismissed;
Feb 26, 1988: A judge formally dismisses the indictments ending the 20 year saga.
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https://selflesswarriors.blogspot.com/2020/08/sw-5-rubin-carter-lesra-martin-and.html
